


Back Then

by Evil_Little_Dog



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Canon - Manga, Community: comment_fic, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-08
Updated: 2011-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-27 02:19:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/290573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Little_Dog/pseuds/Evil_Little_Dog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary:  Ed considers alchemy<br/>Disclaimer:  If I owned any of this, I wouldn't be living in Boxtown.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. V.1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote these two ficlets based on a prompt listed for the LJ community, Comment_Fic. The prompt was: "And when I breathed, my breath was lightning" and I immediately thought of Ed, giving up his alchemy for Al. However, the prompt was constrained by a certain amount of words, so the first ficlet went over immediately. I rewrote it for the second ficlet, so, you get both. Hope you enjoy!

You kneel on the roof of the house, your _home_ , though you’ve realized ‘home’ is more feeling than an actual place – home is where she is, and where your brother is. Even if they’re at separate places across the land, wherever they are is home.

But thinking like that won’t fix the roof, you need hammer and nails and shingles, and your own strength, where one time you pressed your hands together, and transmuted whatever was broken. Back then, when you took a breath - _And when I breathed, my breath was lightning_ \- you could taste the ozone in the air as the lightning flashed up from the transmutation, and suddenly, everything was changed.

Alchemy, though, can’t heal a broken heart. It can’t bring someone back from the dead. It has its limitations in dealing with matters of real day-to-day life, involving other people.

A call makes you look, and smile at the face grinning at you. Alphonse climbs up onto the roof with you, and you think, again, trading away your alchemy? Worth it.

Totally.


	2. V. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was the version I wound up posting at the community.

Back then, you took a breath, tasting ozone on your tongue as the lightning flashed up from the transmutation circle, and afterward, everything was changed. You were like a god.

Alchemy, though, can’t heal broken hearts. It can’t bring someone back to life.

Not godlike.

You exchange alchemy for your brother’s life without a second thought.


End file.
